Before Friday's Battle at the Big House began, Livonia Stevenson wanted to make it Ed Belea's house.

Belea — is sidelined for the season by Hodgkin's lymphoma — led the Spartans out of the Michigan Stadium tunnel, hoping to spark his teammates to an emotional victory.

But Plymouth had other ideas, playing a solid two-way game and scoring 35 unanswered points en route to a convincing 35-11 victory to launch the Brian Lewis coaching era in successful fashion.

"This is a very, very neat thing, coming here," said Lewis, a former coaching assistant for the Michigan Wolverines and very familiar with the venue. "I told them to embrace it. This is the biggest stadium in the country, embrace this, have fun with it.

"But at the same time, their field is just as big as our turf field at P-CEP. ... Let’s just play Plymouth-style football here."

After a sluggish start, the Wildcats (1-0) seemed to quickly regain their footing after an early 21-yard field goal by Stevenson's Ethan Hamm opened the scoring.

Yet perhaps the biggest play of that momentum-turning series was a 4th-and-5 pass to junior Jeremy Fuchs, who dodged tacklers for a 12-yard first down catch. The Wildcats scored four plays later on a 5-yard run by Mathias, with a sweep around left end. After he appeared to be stopped short of the end zone, he fought forward the rest of the way.

Conversely, Stevenson's offense could not get going as sophomore quarterback Coltrane Rubner (5-21, 51 yards, two interceptions) struggled in his first varsity start.

"I don’t know so much about being nervous, but he just didn’t make some good decisions with the ball and it cost us," Stevenson head coach Randy Micallef said.

Mathias added his second TD on an electrifying run down the right sideline from 33 yards out with 1:28 to play in the half, making it a 14-3 game.

The Wildcats then got the ball right back and Miller did the rest, catching a screen pass from Downs and taking it to the house for a 46-yard romp. Following the third of five extra points from Jackson Vacca, the Wildcats enjoyed a comfortable 21-3 halftime advantage.

Miller did it again in the third quarter, this time on a 46-yard run to close out Plymouth's scoring.

The Spartans (0-1) finally scored their first touchdown of the season midway through the fourth quarter on a short run by sophomore Caden Woodall, who was one of the bright spots for head coach Randy Micallef. Woodall ran for 89 yards in 17 carries.

Battle of the young QBs

Downs’ scrambling ability was enough to avoid Spartan pressure, creating enough time to find a target. In the final minute of the half, he threw a screen pass to Miller and the running back took it from there for a 46-yard touchdown to open up a 21-3 lead.

"We put that play in two days before this game and we wanted to try it out and it worked out perfectly," Miller said. "So I’m really excited that play broke for a TD.”

According to Downs, a lot of the credit for Miller's big game was the offensive line's prowess.

"Our O-line blocked their butts off today, they did really good," said Downs, who completed nine of 12 passes for 100 yards. "They were paving holes and that set up that screen right there, I think they (Spartans) had no idea what was coming."

Ivan’s in the ‘House’

The Wildcats also displayed a tough-as-nails defense, putting plenty of heat on Rubner and closing down the Spartans in relatively quick fashion.

Senior defensive end Ivan Davis sacked Rubner for a loss on a 4th-down play inside the Plymouth 20 to stop a promising drive for the Spartans. Plymouth then turned it around and marched 71 yards in 10 plays and scored on Mike Mathias’ 33-yard run, giving the Wildcats a 14-3 advantage.

"You saw him (Davis) turn it on today," Lewis said. "We’ve been waiting for him to turn it on and have that a-ha moment. You saw what he can do when he has that moment.”

Belea leads the charge

Before the third annual Battle at the Big House, spirits were high for the Spartans, who were led out of the tunnel by Belea — still an important part of the team even though his cancer diagnosis has ended his football career.

Belea and his teammates had the chance to cheer early on thanks to a 21-yard field goal by Ethan Hamm just 2:30 into the game.

“It was an exciting moment for him and for our team to have Ed be here and be part of this situation," Micallef said. "Unfortunately, we didn’t execute as well as we needed to on the field. And that emotion didn’t carry over to what we needed to do in the field of play."

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Livonia Stevenson junior kicker Ethan Hamm (13) boots an early 21-yard field goal for the Spartans. The lead was short-lived.(Photo: Bill Bresler | Hometownlife.com)

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